Family Well-Being profile: Danielle Meness
Danielle Meness, Family Well-Being Coordinator
Algonquins of Pikwakanagan
Danielle is a mother of three girls, a son and one granddaughter. Danielle’s girls have always been actively involved in dancing, drumming and other Algonquin crafting. Her youngest daughter is part of a girl’s drum group called the Pikwakanagan Wildflowers. They are very proud of their heritage and have all grown to be beautiful, upstanding adults.
Danielle has worked for the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan for 21 years and completed her Social Services Worker diploma in 2012. She moved to her First Nation when she was 28-years-old and she was enticed by the closeness of the community and the caring people there. Danielle wanted her children to have that sense of community and family closeness.
Danielle describes herself as a caring, sensitive person and is well-tuned into the feelings of people around her. She genuinely cares about the well-being of others and the well-being of her First Nation as a whole.
Danielle’s favourite workdays are when she has an event planned. She is a people person and enjoys interacting with the community. Recently, they hosted a human trafficking workshop for youth and their parents. She felt it was a very heavy topic and thought it was important to have parental support for this information session. It was a chance for families to learn together. In the afternoon, they had self-care stations. It was a time to de-stress from the heavy topic in the morning. Overall, it was a great day and enjoyed by all.
Our 12-week “Kind Men and Youth” program has been very well received. It is a program we assisted in designing and we are ecstatic that it is now a standardized program mandated by the courts for youth and men to attend.
In addition to this, they have initiated a program called “A Foot in Both Worlds” which is a counselling program provided by an Indigenous Counselor. He is available to their members free of charge and he provides four hours of service a week. This program has had some positive outcomes for their community as there are many males and male youth that have disclosed that they benefited from his services.
Danielle would like to see more males participate in their regular programming. She indicates that they will continue to think of new and innovative ideas that help with this dilemma.
Their Family Well-Being program provided a 16-week crafting program that was held every Wednesday evening for two hours per night. This program was taught by a community Elder. They made breastplates, moccasin and mukluks. The program promoted intergenerational contact as there were participants from age 11 to 74. It was a great time to sit together, tell stories, learn and just enjoy each other’s company.
Algonquins of Pikwakanagan’s safe space is a band-owned house located in the heart of our community. It also hosts their office with a fully equipped kitchen and a completed basement that is set up as a media/meeting room. They also purchased a generator so when the power goes out it doesn’t effect our programming. The house is complete with a beautiful play structure in the back yard for families.